Saturday: Compline

ABOUT COMPLINE

Compline (which comes from the Latin word for completion) follows a very ancient format that has been largely unchanged for many centuries. It is simple enough to memorise and it’s familiar rhythm helps to wonderfully settle the mind before sleep. It is a time of quietness and reflection and is best done as the very last thing you do before turning off the lights and going to sleep.

CALL TO WORSHIP

Reader: God, come to my assistanceAll:Lord, make haste to help me.

Reader:Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. All:As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen

EXAMINATION OFCONSCIENCE

We are called to have a clear conscience towards God and towards men, in our hearts and in our minds, in our actions and inactions. To do so, it is vital that we examine our conscience daily and ask for God’s mercy as we fall short and to ask His strength to do better.

Pause for Reflection…

All: (When praying in community, use the words in parenthesis)

I confess to God almighty,(and to you my brothers and sisters,)
that I have greatly sinned,
In my thoughts and in my words,
in what I have done and in what I have failed to do.
Through my fault, through my foolishness,And through my fear.

Almighty God, have mercy upon me.Forgive me all my sins,and deliver me from all evil.Confirm and strengthen me in all goodness,and bring me to life everlasting.Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Pause for Reflection…

Reader: Lord, Have mercy.All:Lord, have mercy. Reader: Christ, Have mercy. All:Christ, have mercy. Reader: Lord, Have mercy.All:Lord, have mercy.

EVENING PSALM

Psalm 51

A Prayer of RepentanceTo the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

Have mercy upon me, O God,According to Your lovingkindness;According to the multitude of Your tender mercies,Blot out my transgressions.Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,And cleanse me from my sin.

For I acknowledge my transgressions,And my sin is always before me.Against You, You only, have I sinned,And done this evil in Your sight—That You may be found just when You speak,And blameless when You judge.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,And in sin my mother conceived me.Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts,And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.Make me hear joy and gladness,That the bones You have broken may rejoice.Hide Your face from my sins,And blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,And renew a steadfast spirit within me.Do not cast me away from Your presence,And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,And sinners shall be converted to You.

Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,The God of my salvation,And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.O Lord, open my lips,And my mouth shall show forth Your praise.For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;You do not delight in burnt offering.The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,A broken and a contrite heart—These, O God, You will not despise.

Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion;Build the walls of Jerusalem.Then You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness,With burnt offering and whole burnt offering;Then they shall offer bulls on Your altar.

All:Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen

WORSHIP

All:
(A time of worship and thanksgiving, led or spontaneous. Alternatively a devotional song may be played and listened to.)

NEW TESTAMENT READING

Ezra 7:1-10

False Prophets and Teachers

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgement;if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked(for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard);then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgement,and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.

Bold and wilful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones,whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgement against them before the Lord.But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction,suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, revelling in their deceptions, while they feast with you.They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing,but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved.For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error.They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

RESPONSORY

Reader:Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. All:Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.

SONG OF SIMEON (Nunc Dimitis)

All:Protect us, Lord, as we stay awake;Watch over us as we sleep,That awake, we may keep watch with Christ,And asleep, may rest in his peace.

Luke 2:29-32

Lord, now let your servant depart in peace, your word has been fulfilled:My own eyes have seen the salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people.A light to reveal you to the nations,and the glory of your people, Israel.

All:Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen

All:Protect us, Lord, as we stay awake;Watch over us as we sleep,That awake, we may keep watch with Christ,And asleep, may rest in his peace.

PRAYER

(You might like to spend a few moments thanking God for the day or bringing to him any outstanding issues.)

COLLECT

Reader:(Either this or an alternative closing prayer may be said.)

Be present, O God,
And protect us through the silent hours of this night,
So that we who are wearied by the changes and chances of this fleeting world,
May rest upon your eternal changelessness.
We ask this through Jesus Christ, your son our Lord,
Who is alive and reigns with you,
In the unity of the Spirit,
One God, now and forever, Amen

BLESSING

Reader:(When praying in community, this or a similar blessing may be used)

May the all-powerful Lord grant us a restful night and a peaceful end. Amen